The New Democrat Coalition’s Housing Task Force has released a new report setting out the preliminary findings of a study on housing, Missing Millions of Homes.

Task force co-chair Denny Heck said: “The struggles shared with the Coalition by constituents, the frustration voiced by homebuilders, the concern expressed by city and county leaders, and the disappointing data presented by economists all tell distinct aspects of the same story: housing is increasingly scarce and increasingly expensive. In the richest country in the world, millions of people are struggling to meet their most basic needs.

“We set out to understand why housing costs were rising, but the answer was quickly clear. We have far too few homes. As a result, prices are being bid up, housing consumes an ever-increasing part of family budgets, and those without means are being forced into homelessness. We must recognize this as a crisis and find a way to change public policy to dramatically increase construction and build millions more homes.”

This Congress, the Coalition established the Housing Task Force, which is co-chaired by Heck, along with Stephanie Murphy, Scott Peters, and Juan Vargas, to look at the entire housing ecosystem and identify solutions to rising housing costs. It covers the full scope of federal housing policy, including housing subsidies offered through Housing & Urban Development and incentives in the tax code. The Housing Task Force conducts its work through briefings and meetings with stakeholders, economists, academic experts and policymakers.

Randy Noel, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) welcomed the work of the task force to seek solutions to the nation’s housing affordability and shortage woes. “Housing construction creates jobs, contributes to the tax base and is important for a strong and healthy economy. We look forward to working with Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill to find solutions that will help builders to construct sorely needed affordable housing units for hard-working American families.”

The task force plans to release a second report with policy recommendations to address the lack of affordable housing options later this year.